Recent reports suggested than consumers of the global smartphone market preferred the low priced handsets offered by Chinese manufacturer Huawei than Apple Inc.'s expensive iPhone 5. The American tech titan's share of the worldwide smartphone market dropped according to latest figures.

Over 13% of the entire smartphone market across the globe accounted for the 31.2 million units sold by Apple Inc., according to Strategy Analytics. The figure is an estimated 16% drop per share in 2012.

Samsung Electronics Co. managed to secure 33.1% of the market share, reflecting the 76 million shipments the company made within the year.

Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corporation took over most of Apple's lost shares, according to the Strategy Analytics report. Despite Apple's increase in sales in its latest financial report, the global smartphone market expanded at a faster rate of 47%.

"Lower-priced smartphones continue to gain traction, but the key for vendors will be to keep prices low while still offering premium devices and services," explained a researcher from the International Data Corporation.